San Diego  The owner of a gun used in the accidental shooting of a 10-year-old boy in Miramar Ranch was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on felony charges including involuntary manslaughter and criminal storage of a firearm.

Todd Francis, 56, is charged in the June 4 death of neighbor Eric Klyaz, who had been playing with Francis’ daughter in the garage of the family home when the shooting occurred.

Eric suffered a single gunshot wound to his chest.

The girl, who was 9 at the time of the shooting, appeared briefly at the San Diego Superior Court hearing. Now 10, she walked into the room accompanied by her mother, attorneys and a dog used to comfort young witnesses, but she did not get up on the witness stand.

“She’s declining to take the oath,” said Deputy Public Defender Marian Gaston, who had been appointed to represent the girl. “She can’t do it.”

Even without the girl’s testimony, Judge Peter Deddeh determined that enough evidence was presented during the preliminary hearing for the case to go to trial.

Francis’ lawyer, Danna Cotman, had argued that the evidence was insufficient — “only hearsay testimony from an obviously traumatized child” — to support claims that the gun was stored in a negligent manner or that it was loaded before the children handled it that day.

The defendant remains free on bail. If convicted of the charges, including child endangerment, he faces a possible prison sentence of seven years and eight months.

At the start of the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Matthew Dix read several stipulations — facts that both the prosecution and the defense agreed to — into the court record. He said a deputy medical examiner had determined that Eric was shot at intermediate range and that it was unlikely he had shot himself.

Gunshot residue was found on Francis’ daughter’s hands.

Francis’ wife, Susan, testified she had asked her teenage son to watch his younger sister the afternoon of June 4 while she ran errands. She said she was gone only a short time when her son called to tell her to come home.

The boy, now 15, testified he was upstairs in the family’s Ivy Hill Drive townhome when he was contacted by police. He said he didn’t know his sister had been playing with her friend Eric, but that it was common for the neighborhood children to play together in their open garages, usually when adults were outside.

Mark Jones, who was repairing a nearby garage door, said he heard a shot about 4:15 p.m., followed by a girl’s screams. He ran over and saw Eric lying on the floor of the garage among boxes, furniture and other items.

“There was a gun,” Jones testified. “It was sitting on a sofa on top of what looked like some laundry.”

Jones said the hammer of the gun was pulled back. San Diego police Officer Vito Messineo testified he spoke to the girl that day and to her father, who said the gun had been hidden and that he was sure it was not loaded.